Kathlyn Williams

Acting · 0.6 popularity

Age

147

Movies

Born: May 30, 1879 – September 23, 1960
From: Butte, Montana, USA

Biography

Kathlyn Williams was born Kathleen Mabel Williams on May 31, 1879 in Butte, Montana, and the only child born to Joseph Edwin "Frank" Williams, a boarding house proprietor, and Mary C. Boe (1846–1908) of Welsh and Norwegian descent. Many biographies state her birth year as 1888; however, she is listed on the 1880 United States Census as being a year old. Williams displayed an early interest in becoming an actress in her youth which lead her to become a member of a community thespian group. She also joined the Woman's Relief Corps that allowed her to showcase her vocal prowess at local recitals. Williams began her career with Selig Polyscope Company in Chicago, Illinois and made her first film in 1908 under the direction of Francis Boggs. By 1910, she was transferred to the company's Los Angeles film studio. Williams played "Cherry Malotte" in the first movie based upon Rex Beach's 1906 novel The Spoilers in 1914, a role portrayed in subsequent versions by Betty Compson (1930), Marlene Dietrich (1942), and Anne Baxter (1955). In 1916, she starred in the thirteen episode adventure film serial, The Adventures of Kathlyn. She was busy throughout the silent film era but age and the advent of talkies saw her make only five sound films, the last in 1935. Kathlyn evolved from a comedian and serial player in silents to portraying character roles in the early 1930s. Williams was married three times. Although many biographies erroneously cite her first husband as being Victor Kainer, he was in fact named Otto H. "Harry" Kainer (1876–1952), who ran an import and export business on Wall Street in New York City. They were wed on October 2, 1903, and their son, Victor Hugo, was born in 1905. They supposedly divorced over Kainer's disapproval of his wife having an acting career, and Williams subsequently obtained a divorce from Kainer in 1909 in Nevada. On March 4, 1913, she married Frank R. Allen, also an actor, but the marriage was a failure from the start and lasted a little over a year. On June 30, 1914, she filed for divorce in Los Angeles and listed desertion as the reason as the failure of their marriage. She later married Paramount Pictures executive Charles Eyton on June 2, 1916, in Riverside, California. The Eytons eventually divorced in 1931. On December 29, 1949, Williams was involved in a deadly automobile accident, which claimed the life of her friend, Mrs. Mary E. Rose, while they were returning home from a social engagement in Las Vegas. As a result of the accident, Williams lost her right leg. On April 8, 1950, Williams sued the estate of Rose for $136,615, citing negligence and claiming that the automobile had inefficient brakes. In June 1951, Williams accepted the offer of $6,500 dollars from the Rose estate. Kathlyn Williams died of a heart attack in Hollywood, California in 1960. For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Kathlyn Williams has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7038 Hollywood Blvd. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Works

91 films

We Can't Have Everything

1918

Single Wives

19248.0

Forbidden Fruit

19216.6

Just a Wife

192010.0

Souls for Sale

19236.3

Sally in Our Alley

192710.0

Our Dancing Daughters

19286.3

Blood Money

19337.1

Wedding Rings

19298.0

The Prince Chap

19207.0

The Spanish Dancer

19235.0

The Single Standard

19295.9

Daddy Long Legs

19314.8

The City That Never Sleeps

19249.0

The Enemy Sex

19248.5

The Painted Flapper

19248.0

Morals

192110.0

A Man's Home

19217.0

Lines of White on a Sullen Sea

19094.2

The Spoilers

19146.2

Thor, Lord of the Jungles

19135.0

Road to Paradise

19306.4

Rendezvous at Midnight

193510.0

Out of the Wreck

1917

The Carpet from Bagdad

1915

Trimmed in Scarlet

19237.0

Her Kingdom of Dreams

19197.0

The Wanderer

19253.0

The Adventures of Kathlyn

19131.0

When a Girl Loves

192410.0

The World's Applause

19239.0

The Two Orphans

1911

We Americans

19287.0

The Highway of Hope

1917

The Whispering Chorus

19186.4

Unholy Love

19324.0

Conrad in Quest of His Youth

19206.4

Thou Shalt Not

1910

A Single Man

19299.0

Wanderer of the Wasteland

19248.0

Back to the Primitive

19114.0

A Private Scandal

19217.0

Gold Is Not All

1910

The Adventures of Kathlyn

19166.0

Her Purchase Price

19199.0

Lost in the Jungle

19115.0

The Cost of Hatred

19171.0

A Virginia Courtship

192110.0

Honeymoon Flats

192810.0

Clarence

19229.0

The Better Wife

19191.0

The Tree of Knowledge

19203.3

Three Bags of Silver

1914

The Valiants of Virginia

1916

Locked Doors

19253.3

A Girl Named Mary

19199.0

The Spellbound Multitude

1914

Her Husband's Women

19298.0

Captain Kate

19114.0

The King's Will

1914

Sweet Alyssum

1915

Hush

19219.0

The U.P. Trail

19208.0

In Old California When the Gringos Came

1911

Big Timber

1917

Thou Shalt Not Covet

1916

The House of His Master

19128.0

The Forged Parchment

1914

Into the Primitive

1916

The Best People

19259.0

The Garden of Brides

1914

Redeeming Love

1916

The Wheels of Justice

1911

Life on the Border

19116.5

The Royal Slave

1914

The Girl at the Cupola

19125.5

The Flight of the Crow

1913

1861

19115.5

The Warrior Maid

1914

The Cruel Crown

1914

The Two Ordeals

1914

The Thing We Love

1918

The Leopard's Foundling

1914

Broadway Gold

19237.0

The Unwelcome Throne

1913

Chip of the Flying U

1914

The Witch of the Everglades

19116.5

A Colonel in Chains

1914

Dad's Girls

1911

The Rose of Old St. Augustine

19117.0

The Man from the East

191110.0